State's Private Sector Job Growth Reaches Record in May

New York State added 47,400 private sector jobs in May to reach 7,783,800, an increase of 0.6 percent which is a record high, according to preliminary figures from the New York State Department of Labor.

The total represents the state’s largest monthly private sector job gain since September 2000. And since the beginning of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration in January 2011, the state has added 673,500 private sector jobs. During that tenure, New York has seen the rate of job creation grow in 46 of those 53 months.

“New York State’s economy added 47,400 private sector jobs in May 2015. This represented the state’s largest monthly private sector job gain in 15 years,” said Bohdan M. Wynnyk, Deputy Director of the Division of Research and Statistics, in a statement. “In addition, the state’s unemployment rate remained at its lowest level since mid-2008.”

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In the Orange-Rockland-Westchester region, a total of 4,600 additional jobs were created in May, for a net gain of 5,000, according to the Department of Labor. The net gain represented an increase of 0.9 percent.

However, in the Dutchess-Putnam region jobs were lost during May, by 0.6 percent, which represents a net loss of 700 positions.

Statewide, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.7 percent, which remains its lowest level since August 2008. New York City’s unemployment rate decreased over the month by 0.1 percent to 6.4 percent.

The state’s private sector job count is based on a payroll survey of 18,000 New York employers conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Monthly payroll employment estimates are preliminary and subject to revision as more data becomes available the following month.

The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of the Current Population Survey, which contacts approximately 3,100 households in New York State each month.

Note: Seasonally adjusted data are used to provide the most valid month-to-month comparison. Non-seasonally adjusted data are valuable in year-to-year comparisons of the same month; for example, May 2014 versus May 2015.